It has come to my attention that some of you are, let us say, not exclusive to CC3. You galavant off with other software such as Photoshop, GIMP, or even Fractal Mapper or Dundjinni. Some of you (I hestitate to say this) don’t use CC3 at all! However, in the face of such naughtiness, we turn the other cheek. In many of our products we offer our PNG art, with transparencies, to non-CC3 users, for commercial and non-commercial use.
Campaign Cartographer 3 includes a full set of overland map symbols for use with any software.
Dungeon Designer 3 will install its dungeon and floorplan artwork without CC3 installed. Read more here.
City Designer 3 installs its city building art to a convenient location. More here.
Fractal Terrains Pro is stand-alone and exports PNG files.
Our Source Maps series include a stand alone viewer which allows PNG export, as well as PDFs of all the maps, and HTML formatted linked information on all the maps.
We are rebuilding Cosmographer, Symbol Set 1 and Symbol Set 2 to install their artwork, too.
Some monthly issues of our annuals include PNG artwork, but in general you really need CC3 to make use of them.
The artwork consists of folders of high resolution PNG files of symbols, along with a variety of seamless tiles.
ProFantasy Software has been producing cartography software since 1993. We’ve got this far by making software we are proud of, and treating our customers well. As a result, we offer a 14-day money-back guarantee, an upgrade guarantee and a ten-year download guarantee.
Our minimum ten year download guarantee
Since 2001, our mail order customers have been able to re-download any product they’ve ordered from us. We want you to continue using your software evenif you change computers, move, or lose track of what you’ve ordered. So, for at least ten years after ordering your software and probably a lot longer you’ll be able to re-download it. In the very unlikely event of download links being unavailable we’ll send you a DVD – this has never happened in ten years.
Our 14-day money-back guarantee
We are confident that you will be pleased with any software you buy from us. If you buy any of our software from our store and it doesn’t live up to your expectations for any reason, we’ll give you your money back. Please let us know within 14 days of receipt of the software that you would like to cancel your licence and get a refund.
Our upgrade guarantee
If a new version of our software comes out within three months of your purchase, you’ll get a free upgrade, within six months, 60% off the full price, up to a year, 40% off. Even if it’s more than a year, we still offer a substantial discount for upgrades up to at least five years.
Mike Riddle, CAD pioneer and creator of FastCAD the software on which CC3 is based, has released a free iPad/iPhone app for FastCAD. It does not support bitmap art – only vector styles, nor does it yet support effects. It’s called CADView.
Campaign Cartographer drawings tend to be much bigger than the usual CAD drawings, and on an iPad 1, detailed overland drawings are a little slow. That said, I’d love to hear how fast CADView is on iPad 2, and get other feedback. Who knows, we might have a full-blown CC3 viewer in a year or two’s time.
Cities are one of the greatest environments for RPG adventuring. In a tight space, players can reasonably encounter every type of roleplaying challenge and meet each with a dizzying array of strategies and tactics. Cities can also be a gamemaster’s (GM) nightmare. It’s difficult to know where players will go next, detailed preparation is almost impossible, and everything should be available. To be successful, GMs need overall planning and a good city map. This series will get you started on the map and support your planning.
This is the first of a short series of articles on mapping cities for fantasy roleplaying games. I’ll show you the main considerations as you place, design, detail, and then play in the city. When we’re done, you’ll be able to draw out a reasonable city with confidence and present your players with an experience they won’t forget. I use ProFantasy’s Campaign Cartographer as my main mapping tool, and all of the maps are drawn with it. There is no post-processing on any of the maps.
I recommend that as you build your own city, that you keep a notepad at your elbow to record your thoughts and designs. Mapping is a creative process, and you will find that you generate many ideas for future adventures as you create your maps. Write the ideas down, and transfer as many of them to the map itself as you can. That way you can find them when you need them. So if you’ve just mapped a narrow pass that would be perfect for an ambush, add that encounter idea as a “GM-only” hidden note. If you don’t write them down in the moment, it’s often tough to remember or recreate the ideas later. And it’s great to be preparing for a gaming session and pull up the notes as a way through creative blocks. You will find that in city building, these notes are critical to make the city come alive later.
About Cities
Cities in the middle ages were rare. Fewer than a dozen true metropolises existed before the modern era. That is because a city needs the following things to grow and flourish:
Abundant food and water to feed the population
Water access: Either a navigable river or seaport
Defense: Hills, river bends, and offshore islands all protect the riches of the city.
Trade routes: Trade is the lifeblood of the city and where routes meet or goods transfer, cities grow.
The first task for anyone mapping a city is to find a suitable site for the city. On the map below, I’ve mapped the most likely places for a city to grow:
If you’ve read our previous article, Mapping Cities 1, welcome back. If you just joined us, look at that first article, or just follow along from here. So far, we’ve found a place for the city, determined its size and laid out the general geography and boundaries.
Next, we’re going to add details to work up to an overview map of the city.
Major City Features
First, we need to place the major features of the city: Points of interest, major districts, entry points, roads, and other trade points. I generally cycle through these one by one, and continue going through the list until I am out of ideas. I’ll place these items on the map as labels or symbols to guide my further development. Here are some design considerations:
Points of interest: This includes major buildings like courthouses, temples, and markets. Include government, business, religious, and entertainment points of interest. Usually a city will have all four types.
Major Districts: I usually put in roughly one district per 1,000 people in the city. Wealthier districts take up more space (they are less dense). Put in labels for the districts if you have ideas, or leave them blank. The more affluent districts will be at the center of the city and along the major thoroughfares.
Walls: Walls are expensive to build, but cities are valuable. Put in walls if the city is threatened, and expand the city outside the walls if there has been a period of peace.
Entry Points: There should be a gate in the wall, or other way of collecting tolls, for every major direction from which people will enter the city.
Roads: Roads will tend to parallel rivers and natural harbors; they will follow contours and attempt to rise evenly. Ridges will push the city into a longer form, often with a castle or temple at either end of the main street. On round hills, buildings cluster on top and roads tend to ring the hill.
Trade: The city will thrive on trade. Make sure there are enough markets to cover everything for sale. But, don’t mix the cattle market in with the flowers, or even worse, ceramics and glass.
Another Perspectives 3 preview. The excellent Kai-Uwe Allner is creating the 3D symbols. In Perspectives Pro, we offer four symbol angles, in Per 3, it will be eight. You can me tabbing through the different angles in the clip.
In answer to comments in the previous thread:
Yes, we’ll have wall textures. We haven’t decided how to do wall shading.
Our plan is to have flat doors but with “indent” symbols to give them depth. The advantage of flat symbols is that they can align to walls at any angle. We might do 3D ones limited to fixed directions though. We still have to decide.
We weren’t sure if Perspectives would make it through to version 3, but with this proof of concept, I think it’s clear it’s worthwhile. More detail in another post.
